The Future Stars 7-on-7 Football Camp will be held beginning in mid-August and have a skill-assessment in a couple of weeks.

The Camp will run from Aug.15-Sept. 21, 5-6:30 p.m., at Century Middle School, 13000 Lafayette St., in Thornton and May 15 will have the skill day, same site, 11 a.m.-noon.

“What we’re trying to do is provide, more or less, an alternative flag-football league,” said Steve Bratten. “You watch flag leagues and some of them are great leagues, but the kids are getting older and are not necessarily being put into tackle. We want a league for them to play in with some fundamentals. We’re trying to do something for kids as an alternative to tackle, but not necessarily have them just running around.”

It was inevitable. The new pitch-count limits are starting to affect baseball teams, particularly as the weather worsens.

And with perhaps as many as six days of wet, cold weather due into next week, in-state teams will get to repeat the process at least one more time before the beginning of the postseason.

Teams entered the 2016 season with the following rules — a player who throws 35 pitches in a game doesn’t have to have any rest; 36-60 pitches, one day of rest; 61-85, two days of rest; and 86-110, three days of rest.

While most coaches are in agreement that pitch counts shouldn’t be considered as a hard-and-fast rule — they realize kids don’t have universal arm abilities — they also are discovering that pitch-count limitations are problems when teams get backed up in scheduling, which is virtually a certainty in Colorado’s fickle conditions in the spring season.

Marco Gonzales, the former Rocky Mountain baseball pitching star in Fort Collins, has had Tommy John surgery and is recovering.

The left-hander, the only pitcher on Colorado record to win four consecutive decisions in state-championship games, missed some time in the 2015 season with elbow problems and recently decided to have the surgery and miss the rest of 2016. Various reports have him not returning to pitching until the latter part of 2017.

Gonzales was diagnosed with a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament.

Here’s a link to Gonzales’ Twitter account in which he recently thanked everyone for their support:

Katie Rainsberger’s goal on Saturday at Mullen’s Runners Rooster track and field meet at Brother Bernard Kinneavy de La Salle Stadium was simple and short — she wanted to help her teammates qualify for next month’s state championships in the 3,200-meter relay.

Goal accomplished.

Rainsberger, Lilliana Hamilton, Maria Mettler and Kayla Wiitala won the event in 9 minutes, 31.37 seconds in one of the day’s highlights.

The four Kadets went off in the morning at 8 a.m. and good thing — Raisnberger, a state and national champion distance runner headed to Oregon, had to get back home to Colorado Springs to prepare for the Kadets’ prom in the evening.

Young are golfers take note — PGA Junior Golf Camps out of Sacramento, Calif., has announced that it has selected Deer Creek Golf Club in Littleton as a host site for its junior golf camps this summer.

The addition of Deer Creek G.C. is part of a significant national expansion plan that will place the camps at more than 75 nationwide. It will be led by local golf professional, Bailey Gadd, PGA. All PGA Junior Golf Camps are led by PGA Professionals and designed for juniors of all skill levels. The camps’ curriculum allows kids to learn the game in a fun, supportive environment that includes a unique progression development tract that focuses on promoting fundamental golf skills, including full swing, putting and chipping, as well as life and character skills, such as good sportsmanship, camaraderie and integrity.

Said Gaid: “We are thrilled to have been selected as a camp location. In that the PGA of America is known for its expertise in golf instruction and growing the game of golf, the camps will be primed as the go-to destination for quality junior golf instruction this summer. I am excited to be able to offer the finest junior golf camps to the young golfer of our community.”

All-State/All-Area lists for #copreps winter sports are being tweeted out left and right, and while such excitement is happening, it couldn’t be a more convenient time to announce that we do not have any.* Instead, we have compiled a completely subjective, digital-friendly list of our 2016 winter sports superlatives.

It will be held from April 4-9 and bring together the top boys and girls basketball players (fourth-to-12th-graders) from throughout Colorado for six days of highly competitive basketball.

This year’s layout will feature a Denver vs. Aurora game, a North vs. South game and club challenge games for Colorado’s top freshmen, sophomores, and juniors. In addition, there will be youth games for boys and girls, a slam-dunk contest, a 3-point shootout, visiting college coaches, 2016 Joint Effort Basketball awards, a free advanced youth skills clinic and an Old-Timers game.

Tryouts for all players who want to participate were March 26th and will be April 2 at Manual High School, 2800 Williams St., at 10 a.m. for ninth- and 10th-grade boys and (noon) for 11th- and 12th-grade boys.

You may have seen last weekend’s offering on Tommy Gillman, the Columbine shortstop headed to play at Texas A&M. He overcame cancer as a child.

Accordingly, there was interest in aiding childhood cancer survivors, notably from the Stephen T. Marchello Scholarship, a post secondary scholarship for graduating seniors in Colorado and Montana.

The deadline for this year’s winners has passed, but here’s addtional information for future use.

• High School grade point average (GPA). Please include copy of transcript.

• SAT or ACT test scores.

• Information provided by the doctor, who directed your treatment, in one of the required letters of reference submitted. If you are unable to contact the doctor, have the hospital or clinic provide confirmation of your treatment.

• Information provided by two other people, other than a family member, in the form of a letter of reference.

Neil Devlin, originally from the Philadelphia area, has covered high school sports in Colorado for more than 30 years, writing about the people, athletes and events that encompass the Rocky Mountain prep sports world.